Security News > 2023 > June > Malaysia goes its own Huawei, won't ban Chinese vendor from 5G network

Malaysia could be putting itself on a collision course with the EU and US as the country looks set to allow Chinese suppliers including Huawei a chance to play a part in its planned 5G network rollout.

The Southeast Asian nation said it will not interfere with commercial decisions made by telecoms operators in the country over who supplies the network kit for its second 5G network.

In letters seen by the Financial Times, the US ambassador to Malaysia Brian McFeeters warned of "National security risks" to the country's infrastructure if "Untrusted suppliers" were allowed into any part of the network, while the head of the EU delegation to Malaysia, Michalis Rokas, said the new plans would negatively impact Ericsson, and to do so would likely put off EU investors from doing business in Malaysia in future.

Huawei is understood to have been lobbying to be allowed to participate in the construction of a second 5G network in Malaysia.

The move follows several years of a relentless sanctions campaign against the Huawei by the US, which banned its domestic telcos from using kit from Huawei in 2019 on the grounds of national security, and then set about leaning on allies and international partners to get them to follow suit.

For its part, Huawei has always denied that it represents a security risk, telling The Register in March that "Huawei believes that there should an objective and factual discussion about how risks in cyberspace can be mitigated."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/06/02/malaysia_5g_rollout_huawei/